Recognized

This came from my boss, which was read at the "All Hands Meeting" on Friday by My Bosses Boss.. Val...

Recognition for Data Mart

Today’s recognition is about how a team overcomes adversity to establish a reputation for excellence; and does it in a short period of time.

Imagine a small boat in a hurricane. It is dark, the waves are tossing the boat around, the wind is blinding and the people on the boat are working frantically to keep from going under the waves. Now, imagine this hurricane lasts for weeks, even months. You now have a feel for the challenges that were faced by the Data Mart team in supporting Incentives Reporting.

For months, the people of the former CIS group worked frantically to keep up with the needs of a growing Incentives organization. No matter what they did, they couldn’t keep up. One month rolled into another. Other reporting work staggered, then stopped. When Andy joined the team in late February, the 2008 Incentive changes due in January hadn’t even been started, the Manager was in a new assignment, Sherrie Robbins had just quit, Jeremy Bruner had just started, one contractor had disappeared, another contractor was completely lost, and poor Enid Richards was recovering from an injury.

The next 3 months were also very tough but the seeds of a turnaround were planted. Sherrie came back to work as a contractor, Enid recovered from her injury, Jeremy got more experience, Andy started to understand the business better, and one of our contractors settled down and became productive. While this group of people worked parts of seven consecutive weekends and at one point they worked 27 consecutive days they were establishing a way of working that was more than working hard, it was cooperative, supportive, smart, disciplined, and focused on their clients. We got the 2008 Incentives done (a few months late) and started to pay attention to making long term improvements.

Eric Sommers joined the team in June, Sherrie Robbins came back full-time, RBG Technology Administration was born and organized around four teams. The DataMart team was one of them and they built on the humble beginnings of the previous few months to take control of their world. They got closer to their clients to really understand their needs and to manage their expectations. They paid attention to improving their routine tasks and on producing product every day. In doing so they gained credibility and trust. Recently, they’ve even rescued other people’s reporting projects gone wrong.

The frustrated people on that little boat, working frantically to survive the hurricane of the first and second quarters have turned into the calm, capable, trusted crew of a more powerful ship. And while the waters of Bank of the West are rarely calm, they know how to keep their ship moving ahead, and how to keep our clients smiling under sunny skies.